Gentle Giant showed off a great selection of their fantastic mini-busts, statues, maquettes and more this year in their Toy Fair show room. On display were all the mini-busts that have been announced to date, including the newly announced clone commanders that were announced just this morning as part of the Gentle Giant World Tour, and a whole slew...9 (including the clones)...of exclusive mini-busts...with even more to come! Now we move on to a few new things...first (and easier to describe) will be a nice Star Wars chess set. The figures will be done in "realistic" style and it will of course be the Empire vs. Rebellion. We are in an OT year so here is the lineup:

The other, and harder to explain, new offering will be a rotocast line that can best be described as "Funky Wars" by yours truly but look more like some pretty comical super-deformed representations of some cool characters. Imagine if you will a TIE Fighter pilot popping out of his under-sized (or is he just a big pilot?) TIE Fighter while flying over some molten planet...maybe that is why the ship is bent out of shape. The pilot is sporting some brass knuckles to add a bit of humor to the sculpt. Or maybe you need to imagine a Bike Scout whose helmet sports all the emotion of a human face trying his hardest to chase down the "bad guys". Poor speeder bike needs to use a screwdriver as the stick shift and the trooper was sent out before he finished his morning shower...he left his toothbrush on the back of the bike...along with his sporting Imperial logo flag of course! More to come on this line in the near future.
Their Star Wars Classics will be mini-busts at about half the scale of their current mini-bust line and they will be set upon a multi-tiered pedestal. On display were the Kit Fisto and TIE Fighter Pilot. Both of them were sculpted in true bust form without their arms. Their price point is yet to be determined but they are being created to offer an alternative to folks who can not spend the cash on the standard mini-bust line. Unfortunately, all of these new offerings were unable to be photographed at this time.

Statues

As we move on to the statues, the Jabba the Hutt was on display along with the free mail-away Bib Fortuna, and they looked fantastic...make room on the coffee table for that one! Max Rebo and the boys were also there. New on the statue line, and again in unpainted prototype format, was Han Solo in his pilot gear sporting his blaster at his side in a nice relaxed position. A nicely done R2-D2 will also join the statue line this year. But...the big prize for almost any Gentle Giant collector will be the Darth Vader in his private chambers kneeling down to address his Master, in full 1/6th scale glory! The base is a round black platform with cutouts for lighting around the perimeter that actually work. All of the upcoming prototyped statues were unable to be photographed. Check out the exclusives section for a bit more news on statues!

Mini-Busts

The coolest of the new mini-busts that we were permitted to take pictures of is the Jawa 2-pack. One of our favorite scavengers comes with a busted up R4 head while the other one comes with a pair of blasters that can be interchanged with one another. We can't forget to mention the light-up eyes! Also on display was a red Royal Guard sporting his force pike and an unpainted prototype of the blue Senate Guard sporting his rifle. Remember to keep on reading to see what is in line for the exclusive mini-busts.

Animated

Next up...animated maquettes. The Clone Wars line will be closed out with a long time fan favorite...Mace Windu! Sweet...you know this reporter likes that one! He is giving a good Force push with one hand and has his purple lightsaber at a defensive position in the other. The OT animated line will continue on strong this year and on display Gentle Giant presented two more unpainted prototypes...Chewbacca sporting his bowcaster at the ready and Han Solo with blaster pointed out in firing position while balancing himself in action with his other arm pointing straight behind him while in a nice wide stance.

Bust-Ups

The bust-ups are evolving! Gentle Giant's license now allows them to expand on their bust-up scale offering by offering us full body sculpts. They had two of the first waves on display, but since these are still early production we could not photograph them. Here is what they have to offer:

Death Star – Grand Moff Tarkin, Darth Vader, Ben Kenobi and Stormtrooper Luke will all be offered in "figure" form. A Death Star Gunner will be in bust form and a mini-diorama of Luke's X-Wing racing away from an exploding Death Star will be the sixth in the wave. All six pieces will be packed with an additional piece that will build a R2-D2 that stands about 3" tall.

Endor – Wicket, Logray, Stormtrooper and Han Solo will all be in figure form. Princess Leia will be in bust form and the diorama will be a speeder bike. The extra pieces to this set will build an AT-ST.

Also on display was the new Animated Clone Wars boxed set. These guys will be shipping in some sharp new clam-shell packaging and it will not include a chase figure. Phew! And...contrary to what the Star Wars Shop states on their web site...Gentle Giant told us today that there is not a chase "Gree" (green Ep. II clone in their product description) included in the AOTC battle damaged clone box set. Hmmmmm....we are double checking with Gentle Giant to confirm the true nature of the SWS clones...

Exclusives

And now for the exclusives...you already know about Gree, Bacara, Cody (with light up hologram), Neyo and Bly. You also already know about Darth Malak. But...did you know about the Spirit of Yoda (light up base makes him glow) and the Spirit of Ben Kenobi (also glows)? These two sculpts have some of the best "spirit" paint and material used to date. There will also be an animated Yoda and R2-D2 piece...and a Senate Royal Guard Statue with his rifle slung over his right shoulder. Chewbacca with his breather mask from ESB will be offered as an exclusive mini-bust sometime this year as well as the Han and Luke bust-ups. No word yet on when and where all of these will be offered up, but count on us to get you the news as soon as it breaks!
Did you think that all you'll be able to pick up at Celebration IV would be the Malak and Gree...think again...not only will there be something from all of their lines offered up, but there will also be yet another mini-bust as well! When we asked what it was we were just told that the offerings will be celebrating the entire Saga. I'm guessing farm boy Luke...but, that is just my guess...

Miscellaneous Items

Rounding things out in the Gentle Giant showroom were a few familiar pieces. The helmet line was displayed with a few additions, as well as the Yoda monument. Gentle Giant will also be importing a very cool R2-D2 trash can, complete with pop-top lid.